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July 25, 2014

International Campaign to Demand the Release of Ayatollah Boroujerdi from Prison in Iran

Date: 24 July 2014

His
Excellency Ban-Ki Moon

Secretary
General of United Nations

The
United Nations

New
York, NY 10017

Re: International
Campaign to Demand the Release of Ayatollah Boroujerdi from Prison in Iran

Your
Excellency,

I join
my fellow compatriots in urging the international community to support our
campaign for the immediate release of Ayatollah Seyed Hossein Kazemeiny
Boroujerdi, a well-respected clergyman and a long time vocal advocate of
secularism, from prison in Iran. We beseech you to intervene without
hesitation, as Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s life has been under threat since his
imprisonment in October 2006, and his health has been deteriorating under poor
conditions due to physical and psychological torture as well as poor medical
treatment.

We would
like to draw the attention of the world community to recent events at the
Special Clerical Ward of the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, where Ayatollah
Boroujerdi was subjected to the latest round of psychological torture. In early
July 2014, the Special Clerical Ward was deliberately set on fire and Ayatollah
Boroujerdi was threatened with more physical torture unless he would agree to
publicly renounce his opposition to the Islamic Republic, endorse the ruling
theocracy, apologize to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali
Khamenei, and sever future contact with his supporters. As Ayatollah Boroujerdi
refuses to accept these conditions, we are seriously concerned about the newly
issued ultimatums, and threats of torture and death.

We
appeal to freedom loving people around the world, to demand that the Islamic
Republic respects the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
to which Iran has long been a signatory. Iranians across the political spectrum
find the ongoing humans rights violations in their beloved homeland appalling
and unacceptable. Iranians with different political ideals and ideological
beliefs view human rights as a universal value, and emphasize a non-violent
solution for the future of their country based on the principles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, we have formed the National Council
of Iran for Free Elections in 2013 with the ultimate vision to hold free, fair
and transparent elections in our homeland. This vision can be realized with the
moral support of the international community for the unconditional release of
all prisoners of conscience.

I thank
you sincerely for your consideration and offer my unconditional assistance on
this urgent matter.